Oaklawn: On Fire Baby works for Honeybee

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - On Fire Baby, a leading Kentucky Oaks candidate based at Oaklawn, breezed five furlongs in a bullet 59.80 seconds Monday. She is continuing her preparations for a start in next month’s Grade 3, $125,000 Honeybee on March 10.

On Fire Baby worked first after the renovation break, under regular rider Joe Johnson. She backtracked to the sixteenth pole upon coming out on the track, then galloped to the backstretch before going into her work with good energy, getting her first eighth of a mile in 11.80 seconds, according to Oaklawn’s head clocker, Jim Hamilton.

Hamilton had her final quarter in 24.20 seconds, and galloping out six furlongs in 1:12.20.

“I worked her five-eighths and let her gallop out real good,” trainer Gary Hartlage said. “She didn’t back off. I had her galloping out seven-eighths in 1:26.”

Hartlage said On Fire Baby would have one more work before the Honeybee. He was pleased with her work all around Monday.

“She jumped into it and then she finished good,” Hartlage said. “She went in 11 and change the last eighth. So, we’re happy.”

On Fire Baby won the Grade 2 Pocahontas and Grade 2 Golden Rod last fall at Churchill Downs.